I'll Drink To That
by pandorabox82
Summary: Penelope finds that settling for someone has a disastrous outcome when she's drugged and left for dead. Will the one person she's been pining after for years come to her rescue, or will it be too late to let him know that she loves him?


Penelope wrinkled her nose a little at the taste of the drink Sam had handed her. They had decided to give their relationship another go after Rossi had gotten married, and she had started to feel intensely lonely. She knew that it was just a stop gap measure, that the person she had wanted to see appear at the wedding had never shown. It seemed like Aaron had well and truly left them all behind. And so she'd decided to settle for Sam.

A part of her wondered if he knew that she didn't care for him as much as he adored her. There were times when she thought that he had to know, based on the looks he gave her when he thought she wasn't looking. But then those looks would melt away, replaced by the look of love she had grown to know so well. Which was why the sly look of triumph on his face was so odd to her. It didn't go away quickly, as before. If anything, it grew harder, stronger, as she took another sip of her coffee, the strangely metallic taste only growing as she swallowed.

"Is everything all right?" she finally asked, feeling slightly unnerved by the look he was continuing to give her.

"It will be," he replied placidly as he continued to watch her. "Are you enjoying your coffee? I made it especially for you."

Those words sounded strangely ominous to her ear, though she didn't have any legitimate reason to be afraid. "It's fine?" Penelope replied, hoping that her own voice sounded halfway convincing. "What's in it?"

"Cinnamon, vanilla, and enough ketamine to knock out a horse. You should start feeling the effects of that soon enough." She felt her brow furrow as she tried to comprehend his words, but even that small movement seemed to take too much energy. Slowly, her mug dropped from her hands to crash onto the floor, even as her vision began to blur.

"Why?" she managed to gasp out.

"Because you could never move on. Even in our first go at a relationship, I could tell that you weren't truly mine. I thought that you were hung up on Derek, but it soon became apparent that you had much higher sights in mind. It's just too bad that he won't be your white knight this time." She tried to focus on the words he was saying, feeling like she was losing more and more as the moments passed by. The last coherent words she could hear from him were, "And no one will ever find you."

Penelope came to an unknown amount of time later, her eyes opening slowly, feeling unnaturally heavy, as if there were weights attached to her lids, trying to keep them closed. It was hard to focus, like all her synapses weren't firing in sync, and a low groan tumbled from her lips as she tried to move. Her body wasn't responding to her thoughts, and she tried to scream out, hoping that those muscles would respond to her. Still, nothing was forthcoming, and she closed her eyes once more, trying to think of a way out of the mess she was in. Listening seemed to be the only thing that she could do, and she tried to slow her breathing enough to where it wasn't filling her ears.

There were no noises that gave her any clues as to where she was, but she felt like she was gently swaying back and forth, though the movement wasn't enough to make her feel sick from the movements. It almost felt like she was on a boat of some sort, but she didn't think that Sam owned a boat. Which meant that she was somewhere that couldn't be traced back to him, and there wouldn't be a way to track her, if and when she was discovered to be missing. And that could take days and days, since it had been a Friday evening when she had been given her laced drink. She didn't know what day it currently was, but she figured that it wasn't Monday yet. She couldn't have lost that much time. Frustrated tears began to roll down her face, into her hair, and she wished that she could swipe them away. Her pinky twitched, filling her mind with a little but of hope.

She didn't know how time was passing, but as she worked at it, she was able to move her right hand with a little more freedom until she had enough dexterity to reach into her bra and feel around for her spare phone. She knew that it was there, she could feel the pressure of the device against the skin of her breast, she just had a difficult time wrapping her fingers around the slim device. As she went to lift her head, her forehead struck something hard, and she gasped as she settled back down, knowing that there wouldn't be an easy way to see her phone and call someone, anyone. Somehow, she managed to get the device turned on, and she winced to feel it vibrate angrily in her hand, knowing that each notification was eating away at her remaining battery life.

_I have to see the screen_, she thought as she maneuvered the phone into her line of sight, trying to ignore the notifications on her screen as she unlocked the device and pressed her contact list, her thumb touching the first name on the list before she could even begin scrolling. It was a number she shouldn't have, but had done some trolling to find, if she had even gotten the courage up to call him. And now, thanks to what Sam had done, she had no choice but to try and talk to him. Somehow, she managed to press the speaker button, listening to the ringing as it tried to connect to Aaron.

"Hello? Who is this?"

The sound of his voice was a balm on her anxious mind, and she struggled to open her mouth, to make a noise of some sort that would allow him to know who he was talking to. "H-hotch. Help."

Those were the only words that she could force out, and she felt like it wasn't enough, that he wouldn't know what was going on. "Is this some sort of prank? I'll call the police."

"Call the FBI," she said, her voice labored as it spilled from her lips.

"Garcia?"

"Yes."

"Is everything okay?"

There was a moment of silence that hung in the air around her as she tried to come around to forming coherent speech again. These words were taking too much out of her, the ketamine wasn't fully out of her system, and she needed to connect to him, to get him to understand. "No."

"Do you know where you are?" In the background, she could hear him whisper something to Jack, then movement as he made his way through his house. Or at least, that's what she thought she was hearing. It was difficult to tell with no frame of reference, after all. "Or can you not talk? I'm guessing it's the latter. And that you called me because I'm the first person in your contact list, just like Emily was after she had died. Because you can't let go of the ones you love." She coughed a little, though she had been trying to gasp, and he hissed in response. "Did someone hurt you?"

"Yes."

"Penelope…"

"Sam. Ketamine. I don't know where…"

Her voice gave out before she could finish her thought, and she could hear him say something else to Jack, though her mind had difficulty focusing once more. She didn't know if it was a side effect of the ketamine, but she was suddenly exhausted once more, and the last thing she heard was him begging her for more to go on before her hand went limp and the phone clattered to the ground, sounding like it was striking wood.

It was unbearably hot when she came to next, though her body was no longer heavy. Taking her opening, Penelope reached up and pressed against the lid that was covering her, trying to move it, but found that it was unmovable, and she tried not to burst into tears, not knowing how much oxygen would be left in her box. That thought, though, led her mind down a rabbit hole that she didn't want to come out of, since she could only focus on the way that her vision narrowed down to a pinpoint, her breathing starting to come out quick and labored. She knew that she was panicking, but she couldn't find a way to calm herself down. Her hand scrambled around for her phone, and as she touched it, she brought it up into her line of vision, pressing the home button in a desperate attempt to think that her phone still held a charge. The screen lit up, revealing that she was down to eleven percent battery, and she knew that she couldn't make any calls. After all, maybe Aaron had thought to have someone from the BAU triangulate where her call had come from, and she would be found before it was too late.

Her eyes finally focused on the date and time, and she gasped to realise that she had been missing for only sixteen hours. Shaking her head a little, Penelope placed her phone into airplane mode, knowing that she had to conserve as much battery as she could. Every fiber of her brain wanted to turn the phone back on, to send final text messages to everyone she loved, letting them know how much she cared for them. She didn't want her last words to have been to Aaron, and not letting him know the depth of her love for him. And perhaps she had been wrong in settling for Sam, but she had thought that she was making him happy, even if she still pined in her heart for Aaron.

As her thoughts spiraled out of control, Penelope allowed herself to cry, a small voice in the back of her brain told her that she was rapidly depleting the air left to her. Closing her eyes, she decided to try and fall back asleep, knowing that if the end was coming, she didn't want to be awake for it to happen. Still, she wished that she had been able to see Aaron's face one last time before she left this plane of existence for the next.

"…ope, wake up!"

A large, warm, hand shook her shoulder, and she unsteadily opened her eyes, finding Aaron staring down at her face, worry written all over his face. "Am I dreaming?" she croaked out, finding her voice hoarse from lack of us. She went to sit up, only to find her head swimming dangerously as she fell back against the wood of where she had been kept. Before her head could strike it, Aaron reached out to cup it, gently bringing her head down to rest on the wood.

"You are not dreaming, but you were damn hard to find," he replied before cupping her cheek, his large thumb running back and forth along her cheekbone as he gazed into her eyes. "What happened?"

"Sam had a rotten spot on his soul that I didn't see. And my inability to love him the way he needed to be loved ate at that rotten spot and caused it to grow. He saw who I truly loved, and it hurt him more than I could ever have imagined it would." He seemed to read the truth on her face, as his thumb stilled on her cheekbone. "I called you, because I hoped that you would be my white knight once more. That you would rescue me. But part of me also knew that yours was the last voice that I wanted to hear before I died."

"You're not going to die, Penny," he replied softly as a trio of paramedics ran over to them, gathering around her body to lift her up onto the waiting stretcher. "And I'll come with you to the hospital if that's what you want."

"Okay. But where are the others? Did you find me on your own?"

Aaron took hold of her hand as the paramedics rolled her towards a waiting ambulance. "The others were still searching the boat last I knew, but I just had this feeling of where you were. I don't know why, but that's what happened."

She nodded a little as she squeezed his hand a little tighter. "I'm just glad that you made it to me in time. Because I love you." Penelope understood that it was likely the lack of oxygen that was loosening her tongue, but she found that she didn't mind all that much, since at least it was out in the open. "You don't have to say anything, I just needed to get it off my chest."

Aaron opened his mouth as if to say something, only for the paramedic nearest her to start asking questions that she tried to answer as she was loaded into the back of the ambulance. "I'm coming with her. She won't ride to a hospital alone again."

A soft smile spread across her lips as he gave her an almost tender look, and then she looked up at the paramedic, seeing her nod a little before they were strapping the gurney down to the floor of the ambulance so that she wouldn't go flying around while they were driving. Aaron took a seat at her head, and she sighed a little when he began to stroke her hair, soothing her as they drove towards the hospital. "So, if I'm not going to be alone at the hospital, does that mean you'll stay?"

"For the moment, yes. I have to call Jessica and let her know that I'll be a little longer than I expected, but that it's important that I be here for you. I just can't go back to this place and stay. I've moved on from the BAU."

"I know, since you never returned my calls before now." She didn't mean to sound so sharp, but from the guilty look that crossed his face, she knew that her words had hit their mark. "I'm sorry, I guess the way I missed you has sharpened a few pieces of my tongue."

"I didn't mean to ghost you, Penelope. And yes, I do know the current slang, since Jack is getting to that age now. He's grown a lot since you saw him last."

"I know. I've kept tabs on you three, just to make certain that there wasn't anything bad that had happened to you. You meant too much to me to just let you slip out of my life." He leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead, causing her to sigh once more. "What was that for?"

"Just remembering how much I cared for you, and how I missed your spirit. And maybe that is what love is, recognizing the thing in another person that calls you to them. Would you be partial to a long distance relationship, after you're released?"

"I would be partial to whatever you would give me, Aaron Hotchner." She gave him another small smile before yawning widely. "And of course my body would choose now as an appropriate time to lose all the adrenaline that had been coursing through my system. Just, promise me that you'll be the first face I see when I wake up again? I know, Jayje and Emily will want to see me, to make certain that I'm okay, but I've been left behind a little, as the team shifts and changes into something new. You, however, you never change. And that's why I fell for you." Her eyes fluttered closed as sleep stole her from him, and Penelope's smiled widened as she felt his lips caress her forehead once more, certain that he might never leave her again.


End file.
